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Donald Trump now claims Operation Midnight Hammer was bombing ‘drug factories’ in IranYour support helps us to tell the story
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Donald Trump has added to his list of reasons for starting a war with Iran nearly eight months ago.
The president has always said the ongoing conflict, which began at the end of February, was launched to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But now he has claimed Operation Midnight Hammer was bombing “drug factories” in the country.
However, speaking at a rally in Durant, Oklahoma, Mr Trump said: “They went from Missouri and then at one o’clock in the morning, with no moon, dark as can be, these unbelievable machines led by the most incredible pilots in the world, they unloaded every single bomb, went right down air chutes into this, uh, drug factories, really.
“That’s what they were doing. They were nuclear and drugs. They were doing drugs, but they were doing the nuclear.”
It comes after he said early indications suggest Iran was most likely linked to the Israeli plane hijacking attempt on Wednesday.
President Trump warned the US would retaliate if the link is established to Iran, telling reporters: “Oh, they’ll be hit, very hard, don’t worry.”
Watch: Israel warned UK over ‘Iranian attack’ ahead of RAF Fairford incident, Netanyahu claims
Israel warned UK over ‘Iranian attack’ ahead of RAF Fairford incident, Netanyahu claims
Maryam Zakir-Hussain3 October 2026 03:00
Watch: Trump now claims Operation Watch: Midnight Hammer was bombing ‘drug factories’ in IranTrump now claims Operation Midnight Hammer was bombing ‘drug factories’ in Iran
Maryam Zakir-Hussain3 October 2026 02:00
Trump sends 9,000 troops to Middle East after threatening to it Iran ‘very hard’
Around 9,000 US troops are being deployed to the Middle East aboard a group of ship after Donald Trump warned that new strikes against Iran could be on the horizon.
The group of ships now en route to the Middle East together carry over 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines.
It includes the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which recently deployed with the cruiser USS Chosin, and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group, which includes the USS John P. Murtha and USS Anchorage amphibious landing ships.
It could mean that three carriers are in the region as early as the end of October, according to a US official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
President Trump also said early indications suggest that Iran is linked to the co-pilot who stabbed his captain and tried to crash an Israel-bound flight on Wednesday.
He warned that if the link is established to Iran, the US would retaliate.
“Oh they’ll be hit, very hard, don’t worry,” he said. “You just ask them. They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain3 October 2026 01:00
India warns of major ‘food crisis’ in coming months amid El Nino and global conflicts
Speaking at an event organised by the Asia Society in New York, Mr Jaishankar said the two conflicts had “a devastating impact” on the economies of the Global South, and that energy, food, fertiliser and finance were all under strain at once.
“If you have energy as a big crunch and then food and fertilisers on top of it, and finance, because every time there’s a conflict, money moves towards safe harbours and away from the Global South, the net result of it has been really very, very stressful,” he said.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain3 October 2026 00:00
US ‘needs to get idea of bringing us to our knees out of its head’, says Iran
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran will continue to defend itself but remains open to discussions with America.
According to state media, he said on Thursday that the US needed to “get the idea of bringing us to our knees with terror and martyrdom out of its head.”
Pezeshkian added: “We defend the rights of our society with dignity and pride, and we have never run away from dialogue and will not do so, although the United States has targeted our country three times despite having signed the agreement.
“The enemies thought that with the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, the people, commanders, and scientists – the country – would collapse, but our national and internal unity and cohesion increased.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain2 October 2026 23:00
Trump touts having the best numbers of any president, despite his dismal approval rating
The president was in Denton, Texas, on Thursday at a manufacturing plant on Thursday as part of a two-state swing that will also include a visit to Choctaw tribal lands in Oklahoma. He spoke to a crowd of a few hundred people as he tried — not for the first time this week — to convince voters that it was merely an image problem from which the GOP and his presidency are suffering.
“We have the greatest numbers of any president in the history of our country, and I can’t get the word out,” the president complained. “The only thing we’re doing bad at is public relations.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain2 October 2026 22:00
Yemen carried out 20 strikes on Houthi targets in Taiz province, spokesperson says
The military spokesperson for Yemen’s internationally recognised government said on Friday that warplanes carried out 20 strikes over the past three hours targeting Houthi movements, personnel, vehicles and military equipment in Taiz province.
The strikes come amid the most serious escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthis since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks in 2022.
Unchallenged occupation of southwestern Yemen’s Taiz would give the Houthis full control over the country’s north, a tighter grip on the Red Sea coast and easier access to the south and the southern port city of Aden, seat of the government.
The renewed conflict has already `displaced tens of thousands of people and could reshape control in Yemen, with implications for Red Sea shipping lanes and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Saudi Arabia said on Thursday the Houthis attacked a power distribution station in Medina that supplies electricity to the Prophet’s Mosque.
A Houthi military source, quoted by the Houthi-run Saba news agency, denied the claim and said it was intended to cover up what he described as Saudi Arabia’s failure to substantiate an earlier accusation that the Houthis had targeted the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain2 October 2026 21:00
British-Iranian man arrested over alleged RAF Fairford bomb plot
The 25-year-old man, a dual UK/Iranian national, was arrested on Thursday afternoon in the Borough of Westminster, London, on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts, Counter Terrorism Policing said.
Searches of two properties were also carried out in the same area.
Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing Vicki Evans said: “The investigation into circumstances surrounding events in Gloucestershire is hugely complex, and our specialist teams are interrogating multiple lines of enquiry.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain2 October 2026 20:00
FlyDubai incident: Co-pilot may have ties to Iran
Unhandled: video-jwplayer
Maryam Zakir-Hussain2 October 2026 19:00
Wounded FlyDubai captain recounts fight to save passengers, and other Mideast developments
The Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight said in a live video call that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save passengers after being stabbed by his co-pilot.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was running in Israel’s upcoming election is withdrawing his candidacy following comments over Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel:
Maryam Zakir-Hussain2 October 2026 18:30